Kim oversees missile firing drills, tells troops to be alert

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a
Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by
North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on
September 16, 2017.

KCNA | Reuters

North Korean state media on Sunday showed leader Kim Jong Un
observing live-fire drills of long-range multiple rocket
launchers and what appeared to be a new short-range ballistic
missile, a day after South Korea expressed concern that the
launches were a violation of an inter-Korean agreement to
cease all hostile acts.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim
expressed "great satisfaction" over Saturday's drills and
stressed that his front-line troops should keep a "high alert
posture" and enhance combat ability to "defend the political
sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country."

The weapons launches were a likely sign of Pyongyang's
growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with
Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in
return for nuclear disarmament. They also highlighted the
fragility of the detente between the Koreas, which in a
military agreement reached last September vowed to completely
cease "all hostile acts" against each other in land, air and
sea.

South Korea said it's "very concerned" about North Korea's
weapons launches, calling them a violation of the agreements
to reduce animosities between the countries. The statement,
issued after an emergency meeting Saturday of top officials
at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, also urged North
Korea to stop committing acts that would raise military
tensions and join efforts to resume nuclear diplomacy.

"Praising the People's Army for its excellent operation of
modern large-caliber long-range multiple rocket launchers and
tactical guided weapons, he said that all the service members
are master gunners and they are capable of carrying out duty
to promptly tackle any situation," the KNCA paraphrased Kim
as saying. "He stressed the need for all the service members
to keep high alert posture and more dynamically wage the
drive to increase the combat ability so as to defend the
political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the
country and ... the security of the people from the threats
and invasion by any forces."

The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos
that showed Kim, equipped with binoculars, observing tests of
different weapons systems, including multiple rocket
launchers and what appeared to be a short-range missile fired
from a launch vehicle, and also an explosion of what seemed
to be a target set on island rocks.

Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul's Institute for Far
Eastern Studies, said the North Korean missile appeared to be
modeled after Russia's 9K720 Iskander mobile short-range
ballistic missile system. The solid-fuel North Korean
missile, which was first revealed in a Pyongyang military
parade in February, is potentially capable of conducting
nuclear strikes on all areas of South Korea, Kim said.

"The North tried to clearly demonstrate its abilities to
strike any target on the Korean Peninsula, including U.S.
troops stationed across the country in areas such as Seoul,
Pyeongtaek, Daegu and Busan," Kim said.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that "several
projectiles" had been launched from near the coastal town of
Wonsan and that they flew up to 200 kilometers (125 miles)
before splashing into the sea toward the northeast. That
roughly matched the distance between the area and the South
Korean capital of Seoul, although the North in Sunday's
report did not issue any direct threat or warning toward the
South or the United States. Experts say the North may
increase these sorts of low-level provocations to apply
pressure on the United States to agree to reduce crushing
international sanctions.

The launches comes amid a diplomatic breakdown that has
followed the failed summit earlier this year between
President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un over the North's
pursuit of nuclear bombs that can accurately target the U.S.
mainland. The North probably has viable shorter-range nuclear
armed missiles, but it still needs more tests to perfect its
longer-range weapons, according to outside analysts.

Trump said Saturday that he still believes a nuclear deal
with North Korea will happen. He tweeted that Kim "fully
realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, &
will do nothing to interfere or end it."

Trump added: "He also knows that I am with him & does not
want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!"

Pyongyang has recently demanded that U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo be removed from nuclear negotiations and
criticized national security adviser John Bolton. North Korea
also said last month that it had tested a new type of
unspecified "tactical guided weapon."

North Korea could choose to fire more missiles with longer
ranges in coming weeks to ramp up its pressure on the United
States to come up with a roadmap for nuclear talks by the end
of this year, said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea
University.

"North Korea wants to say, 'We have missiles and nuclear
weapons to cope with (U.S.-led) sanctions,'" Nam said. "They
can fire short-range missiles a couple more times this month,
and there is no guarantee that they won't fire a medium-range
missile next month."

North Korea last conducted a major missile test in November
2017 when it flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic
missile that demonstrated potential capability to reach deep
into the U.S. mainland. That year saw a string of
increasingly powerful weapons tests from the North and a
belligerent response from Trump that had many in the region
fearing war.

During the diplomacy that followed those weapons tests, Kim
said that the North would not test nuclear devices or ICBMs.
The short-range projectiles launched on Saturday don't appear
to violate that self-imposed moratorium, and they may instead
be a way to register Kim's displeasure with Washington
without having the diplomacy collapse.

South Korea's liberal president, Moon Jae-in, has doggedly
pursued engagement with the North and is seen as a driving
force behind the two summits between Trump and Kim.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha talked by phone
with Pompeo about the North Korean launches. The Foreign
Ministry also said that South Korea's chief nuclear envoy,
Lee Do-hoon, had a telephone conversation with Stephen
Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea who
is scheduled to travel to Seoul next week for talks.

"The defendant took advantage of them emotionally and sexually," Assistant U.S....

News Fuzzer is a centralized news magazine, we are collecting the latest world news from the most popular sources and classifying it on multiple categories: International news, UK news, US news, Sport news, Cybersecurity News, Economic News, Politics, Health, Science, Cryptocurrency news and many more.